46and2008Denali - Build Thread

[46and2008Denali]

So here's the baseline picture prior taking her apart



I was hoping I could get this done in 2 days, but I planned it for the long New Years weekend just in case, plus I wasn't able to get started as early as I would have liked the first 2 days. The first few hours were far and away the toughest part, breaking bolts that had been locked down for 130k miles just isn't easy and it always seems like every piece is a jigsaw puzzle of wrenches/ratchets/extensions/swivels to get at them with enough leverage. I did NOT have the right combination to easily get at the upper strut mounts down through the engine bay, so I got immediately discouraged on the passenger side at the very beginning.

I used a video on how to replace lower controls arms from 1A auto and TWA motorsports lowering videos to kind of help guide me through, but the good news is it all starts to make a lot of sense once you get under there and start doing it. But like I said the beginning was the toughest part.



Starting to make progress with my "helper". This picture was taken just moments before he tried to help by attempting to key the truck with that screwdriver.

Got the front end all the way apart, calipers suspended (used a wire coat hanger for this)... exhausting...

Note for the next guy: all the videos are like "oh yeah just suspend it so no pressure on the lines", easier said than done. Would have helped to have extra set of hands to do that but basically balanced it on my knee while I wrapped and twisted the coat hanger around the sway bar.



I didn't start out doing this, but recommend being pretty organized with the parts, I used labeled ziplocks to keep everything together.



Another note.. I could NOT get the lower ball joint to break free from the spindle. I didn't have a pickle fork but whacked that thing with a mini sledge over and over. Eventually I found a forum post where someone was like oh yeah I just took the LCA and spindle off as a unit... duh! Especially since I was replacing both parts I didn't even NEED them apart. Oh well, lesson learned. Also, do yourself a favor and break the tie rod jam nut loose before you take the outer tie rod out of the spindle. Seems obvious now, but not how I did it.

 

[46and2008Denali]

Time to start putting stuff back together. Disaster strikes immediately, the zerk fitting on the driver side LCA had broken off in shipping. I tried to extract it and could not, decided to put it on anyway because I had to keep moving and will deal later. Need to acquire a straight flute or something to get it out. I think I'll be able to get at it just by removing the strut and the axle and its on the driver's side so there are worse things. Now that I've done it once won't be near as hard to do it again, but unfortunate either way. I'm also going back to do inner tie rods in a couple weeks when the parts get here so will handle it then.



Got the controls arms in just before dark on day 1. Kinda look nice just sitting there new by themselves.



Belltech 2509 vs OEM spindle (I'm never planning to go any lower so didn't need the 2511)



And installed plus new outer tie rods, don't forget to cut the UCA bolt off nearly flush with the nut so it doesn't drag across the axle boot (have a pic on my phone, but not in photobucket), you can kinda see it here



And brakes etc all back on

 

[46and2008Denali]

And... front end done! We're back on the ground! Loved it instantly - shrink those fender gaps!







Also, although I kinda like the mud flaps on the front, I immediately realized they weren't going to be able to stay, so they came off as soon as I tried to turn it around to start the back end and rubbed like crazy. Oh well! It might be possible to make them fit with the full norcal cutting fender mod that a lot of the lifted guys use, we'll see if I decide to go back and try and make it work. If any lowered guys have made front mud flaps work I'd love to hear about it.

 

[adventurenali92]

Wow!! That paint job looks killer! I’m jealous! Looks like a whole new truck! The painted black grills and new headlights are a really nice compliment to the new paint as well! Loving the Led bar in the newer headlights that wraps all the way around! Looks really good for these yukons!

 

[ivin74]

Time to start putting stuff back together. Disaster strikes immediately, the zerk fitting on the driver side LCA had broken off in shipping. I tried to extract it and could not, decided to put it on anyway because I had to keep moving and will deal later. Need to acquire a straight flute or something to get it out. I think I'll be able to get at it just by removing the strut and the axle and its on the driver's side so there are worse things. Now that I've done it once won't be near as hard to do it again, but unfortunate either way. I'm also going back to do inner tie rods in a couple weeks when the parts get here so will handle it then.



Got the controls arms in just before dark on day 1. Kinda look nice just sitting there new by themselves.



Belltech 2509 vs OEM spindle (I'm never planning to go any lower so didn't need the 2511)



And installed plus new outer tie rods, don't forget to cut the UCA bolt off nearly flush with the nut so it doesn't drag across the axle boot (have a pic on my phone, but not in photobucket), you can kinda see it here



And brakes etc all back on

I bet your rig runs like new now. Welcome to the forum. Keep the mods coming, lol

 

[gat0r]

lookin good, keep up the good work

 

[Rocket Man]

Nice work so far. Your truck already looks so much better it’s crazy. Looking forward to progress!

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Great work and step-by-step documentation of your work, , with photos, and including a discussion on issues encountered and how you resolved them.

This is a top notch build thread, IMO. Keep it up!

 

[46and2008Denali]

Thanks for the responses guys. I wanted to document what I did for myself, but also as I figured out how I was going to approach all this I found little bits here and there from posts/build threads/videos/etc but its hard to find all the little tricks in one place. I don't think I'll catch them all here, but maybe the next guy to look here for info on replacing parts/lowering an NNBS will find it helpful.

Also @ivin74 its amazing how much better it drives, way more fun, just everything feels solid. Will never be able to attribute to new parts vs the drop but I'm so pleased with the outcome thus far.

So... on to the back end. Can see my notes on torque values on the plywood there for the front end. We're on the afternoon of Day 2 here, feeling behind my intended schedule but pressing on.



I saw that some people took the wheel well liners out and some didn't, my advice is that it only take 2 minutes to get them out and creates some more space to work, so do it.

I don't have a great picture of this but I had a really difficult time getting the rear upper shock bolts out. This was really only because I was being dumb. I saw someone say go from inside the frame rail, but at my first glance I didn't think that was possible so I squeezed a breaker bar up through this tiny gap on the outside of the frame rail then fenagled a socket on to there to break the bolt loose. After I got them out that way I realized that you could quite easily with a 6 inch extension (maybe a 6 +3) plus a deep socket get at it from inside the frame rail which made getting them on way easier. Taking them off this way is most likely how I disconnected the wiring harness that sits DIRECLTY on top of the frame rail which causes so many people to get the ABS/stabilitrak error on DIC after this install. I'll come back to that eventually.



Old parts next to new parts



Shock relocation brackets on

 

[46and2008Denali]

Ok... Free Travel Mod time. I was running out of daylight on day 2 and really wanted to make some progress on this part in case it took longer or was more difficult than I was anticipating. I started with the passenger side (and HIGHLY recommend this) to get a feel for how it would go before I did the driver's side so close to the gas tank. I followed guidance again from a TWA motorsports youtube and various forum posts on here. I had a 4 1/2" angle grinder and a sawzall, standard metal cutoff wheels and heavy/medium duty 6 and 9 inch blades for the saw.

Just for reference, here is driver side before



My method may not be the quickest but doing it this way seemed to leave less margin for error. As soon as I took the sawzall to the frame I realize there was going to be a ton blade pitch unless you could make a long straight cut so I started with the angle grinder. I did draw a line on the frame there to map it out for myself but its pretty obvious. I went across cutting all the way through the outside of the rail on my intended cut line. You can see the scars of my mistakes, mostly from being tentative. Once you get really started you realize its not that bad so easier to commit to the cuts.



I then cut upwards on both ends and a relief cut right up the middle. Used a big pry bar to bend it down to get clear(er) access and line of sight to the backside of the rail.



Up to this point I had only used the angle grinder but once I got it bent down a little more I threw the 9 inch heavy duty blade on the sawzall and cut through the back side in one pass like butter. So all in all the passenger side took me like an hour maybe, really not a big deal.

So on to the driver's side, for everyone who said "well its really close to the gas tank so be careful".. you were NOT kidding. It's like really close.



You may have seen earlier in the thread I had a piece of decent gauge aluminum that I stuck the badges to when I painted them, well when I bought that I knew it was going to serve this purpose as well and I highly recommend doing something like this, it didn't make it easy but gave me a lot more confidence in going at this thing, I just wedged it up between the tank and the frame and it served as a pretty adequate guard.



Same general process for the driver's side. Can see the relief cut better in this picture.



Side note: The bumpstops that came with the 34324 pro kit were meant to be factory replacements and really probably too tall, so don't have a bolt of anything or the bottom to mount them. Obviously I'm cutting off the bumpstop mounts here so was always going to put them on the axle pad there. They are currently zip tied in place so that SOMETHING is there, but I'll be acquiring some low-pro bumpstops to replace them. In the end they're just barely not making contact at ride height with the frame. If I hadn't done free travel mod they definitely would have been touching.

So I won't lie, the driver's side is definitely a notch up in difficulty, and I was much more uncomfortable with the sawzall near the gas tank. I ended up going back and forth between the angle grinder and the saw cutting the whole thing into little pieces, especially near the tank. It was tedious, but got the job done.



And here's the blade carnage. I was on my LAST cut off wheel, but I probably did a lot of extra cutting, I'd say 5 is about the right number. Really easy to trash a sawzall blade doing this so have a few of those too. In the end the 6 inch blades were pretty worthless, so wouldn't bother with those if I was doing it again.



Then just grind it down to clean up the sharp edges and put some paint on it. I put paint then rubberized undercoating, I don't know why, seemed like a better safe than sorry situation.

New shocks are in for this pic, and you can see the zip tied bumpstop again. I probably could have cut another 1/4" all the way across, you can kind of see the lip on the far right. But I was out of blades and time and you'll be able to see that you've made the clearance you need for the bumpstop.



One more with the undercoating, that stuff does not like to spray evenly, I was probably too heavy handed with it, oh well it can't really be seen.